Many varied types of metering devices have been provided worldwide to monitor the distribution of customer utilities at residential and commercial properties. Utility meters may be used to monitor different types of utilities (i.e., products, or commodities) such as water, gas, electricity, cable service, telecommunications, and others. Such utility meters are also often characterized by different functionality and specific performance capabilities.
A utility meter is typically equipped with all the hardware components needed to operate in a variety of fashions and with a multitude of optional features. Thus, a microprocessor-based utility meter generally corresponds to a multi-purpose metering platform. The functionality provided by each particular meter is governed in a substantial fashion by the firmware embedded in the meter. The meter firmware corresponds to the software stored in various memory chips or other components in the meter hardware that enables other software instructions and applications to be read and executed. New firmware can be downloaded to a utility meter to add, remove, or modify the functionality of a meter.
Many existing utility meters are configured such that a user can upgrade a meter's functionality by downloading new firmware to the meter. The enablement of such firmware at a meter is often referenced as uploading and downloading keys in the meter. These meter keys unlock certain features and/or capabilities of the meter and enable meter operation in a selected fashion.
Meter key access is typically enabled via licenses that may be purchased by a user. Different licenses may be available for each type of functionality that can be added to a meter. A license for a function gives a user the ability to add that functionality to a meter, at which point the license is considered used.
Known technology for upgrading meter functionality involves the purchase of upgrade licenses and corresponding applications that are provided on diskette storage device(s). Such disk(s) provide information that enables a user to access new firmware on a meter thus increasing particular functionality for a meter. Such disks may also maintain a license count such that the number of upgrades can be monitored. This license count feature intends to ensure the number of upgrades downloaded to a meter matches the number of purchased licenses. The use of license and upgrade applications via diskette can be relatively insecure and may often pose usability problems both to the manufacturer or distributor and to the user.
Additional known technology makes use of dongles, or security connectors with specialized internal chips, that must be connected to an I/O port of a meter device in order for certain features or meter functionality to run properly. These peripheral adapters are also prone to problematic security issues, and may thus not be desirable for certain applications.
New advances in metering technology have and will significantly increase the number of options and functional features available for a utility meter. Each upgrade can range in cost from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars or more. Given the increase in functional options that utility meters are afforded, it is desired to provide improved features and methods for administering and managing the deployment of licensed meter functionality upgrades. It is also preferred to provide such technology with an ability to ensure effective functionality transfer and secure license transactions.
While various systems and methods have been developed to address meter upgrades and corresponding license transactions, no one design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.